Wednesday, September 23, 2009

No creations to share, but I'm just excited about this. In two different Cincinnati Kroger stores, we discovered Kroger White Chocolate Chips - which are real white chocolate! If you've never tried to buy white chocolate, it's a lot harder than you'd imagine. Many supermarkets only sell Nestle "White Baking Chips," which have hydrogenated oil instead of cocoa butter - less healthy and WAY less tasty. I accidentally bought them once to make peppermint bark, and it turned out downright disgusting. That was several years ago, and since then I have never, ever failed to check the ingredients list when looking for white chocolate.

Strangely, it seems to be the store/generic brands that are most likely to have real white chocolate chips. President's Choice has them, which used to be sold at the Jewel Oscos near me, but they stopped carrying them. Whole Foods' 365 generic has white chocolate chunks, which is what I've been using. (Whole Foods also carries Callebaut bulk white chocolate, which is good, but when we're making a LOT of candy for Christmas price is a concern.)

The Kroger ones are less than $3/bag, whereas WF 365 is $4.50/bag - that little difference adds up when you're making a lot. For some reason, no other Kroger I've been to, or other stores that carry the Kroger brand, has carried the white chocolate chips. So I'm excited to give them a try and see if they're worth using!

Welcome to Crimson/Plum

We are a husband and wife who have made chocolates for friends and family at Christmastime for several years now, and are expanding candy-making to a year-round hobby! Expect to find here: Tales of our chocolate- and candy-making experimentations, reviews of brands and products, photos of our sweet creations, tutorials, and more. Anything related to chocolate and/or candy-making (or really, anything sweet and tasty) is fair game!